The Nurburgring: How to ride it – and why you should

The Nurburgring is one of the most extraordinary places on earth. A place where you can almost feel the history of over 70 years of racing crush you just as surely as the G-forces at the infamous Karussell corner.

Over the next few days we will be bringing you the people who make the pilgrimage to the circuit and a very special on board lap of the most demanding track in the world.

Click on the link on the right to hear our first audio file, with John Taylor, instructor with several riding schools and ‘Ring veteran.

The Nurburgring, which nestles in the heart of Germany’s Eifel Mountains, has an appeal and a mystique which effects everyone who visits. No-one who has ridden the 13 miles of swooping, twisting Tarmac can come away untouched.

The challenge of its 157 corners is infectious, and like a burr, lodges under the skin, demanding to be scratched and scratched until all too often you’re left red raw from the experience.

This, like its fellow, the Isle of Man circuit, is utterly without compromise. There is no cosy run-off, or gravel traps, or on site medical assistance to cosset the unlucky or overconfident.

There are, however, plenty of blind exits, off-camber corners and uneven surfaces. Not to mention the blistering speeds of the fast sections where you compete for space with hustling Porsches, Ferraris and lumbering coach loads of tourists.

Coaches? Well, the Nurburgring (or ” Nordschliefe ” – ‘North Loop’) is a public road and anyone or anything can ride or drive it providing they stick to the rules. No stopping, and overtaking on the left, bitte.

Opened in 1927 the Nurburgring was a public works construction – built largely as an exercise in alleviating local unemployment. The lack of run-off areas and modern safety features seem to only enhance the ‘Ring’s appeal to today’s riders who seek the ultimate test. Man and machine against the unforgiving track.